


If You Come Back

by charredolives



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Actually Pretty Fluffy, Betrayal, Brotherly Affection, Demonic Possession, Family Issues, Family Reunions, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gratsu - Freeform, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Male Slash, Mother-Son Relationship, Nightmares, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s), Possible Character Death, Revenge, Survivor Guilt, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:06:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5465894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charredolives/pseuds/charredolives
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All is well in Fairy Tail. That is, until Ur comes back from the dead and begs Gray to leave Fairy Tail, come with her, and help her defeat 'another' Deliora. Now Gray has to choose between his new family and home, Fairy Tail, or his past- the woman who raised him like a son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Hey, Ice-Princess, wanna take a job with me?"

Those words would never have been said a year ago. Instead of an invitation, a brawl would take place. Instead of a friendly conversation, a fight would break out. Instead of calling each other nakama, comrades, or friends, they'd call one another rivals.

That all changed in a year. Natsu and Gray had matured, but they had also gone through a lot of shit and they had gone through it together. Just one year later, and the two best friends were taking jobs together, hanging out (just because they wanted to), sharing meals to save jewels, and even... just... talking. 

Talking like friends would. 

"Where to, flame-brain?" Gray responded, not looking up from his book. Natsu _hmm_ ed thoughtfully. "I saw one that is up north- defeating a small but powerful dark guild. How 'bout it?" 

Gray stopped reading. 

"...Up north?" He asked quietly after a moment of silence. 

Natsu froze, realising the hesitation. Gray had been reluctant to go to the northern areas because of his past with the snowy mountains and chilly air. He shook his head. "But we can find another one..." He added awkwardly. Natsu inwardly smacked himself.

"No, I'll do it." Gray said, hiding his nervousness. 

"You sure? It's fine, I know how-"

"I'm a total coward who can't even face a few mountains because I was an idiot a while back?" Gray gave Natsu a pointed look. "I'll be fine. I've got to get over this sometime, so why not now?" 

Natsu still looked concerned, although he didn't argue. "Uh... okay. We'll leave tomorrow morning, t-train station, okay?" Gray nodded, looking back down at his book. Neither mage said anything else, but Gray was too distracted to actually get any reading done, and Natsu was only pretending to look over a menu.

-=-

Gray slowly walked home from the guild late at night. He had been one of the last to leave, besides a wasted Bickslow and Cana, a frustrated Mirajane, and a rather quiet Natsu. The ice-mage ran a hand through his ebony hair at the thought of Natsu.

Their relationship was _complicated_.

Natsu and he had been rivals once they met each other, but even as kids, they never really hated each other. They got in daily fights, but they did care about one another. If one got hurt, the other was there to comfort. If one got stuck on a hard spell, the other challenged them in order to inspire them- to encourage them. 

And the last year... that in of itself had been a miracle.

Something had clicked and Natsu and Gray had found themselves constantly in each other's company, going on jobs together and hanging out even outside of the guild, sometimes. They had deep conversations, sometimes, as well. It was just such a comfortable atmosphere, just him and Natsu. Natsu helped out with his nightmares and PTSD, and he helped Natsu out with his abandonment issues, trust issues, and inward turmoil of the entire 'Igneel leaving' thing.

It really was odd, how well they got along, suddenly.

They had their own routines on jobs, as well. Gray would put his cold hands on Natsu's wrist and neck when he got motion sickness. Natsu would be there when Gray woke screaming. They would fight for each other. 

Gray really was happy that he and Natsu got along. He felt much less lonely whenever Natsu was there.

As the ice-mage neared the door to his house, he felt the knot in his gut start to twist. The next morning he was off to the northern parts of the land- his homeland. Or close, somewhat, at least. In all honesty, Gray was terrified to go back. To see the ruins that the town was in. To see _Deliora roaring into the pitch black sky, echoing through the clouds and shaking the ground. Gray watched as his family was killed, and his neighbours, and everyone he ever knew- and then Ur and Lyon and suddenly he brought him back because it was his fault and-_

Gray gasped, reeling back, landing on the cobblestones like the doorknob had shocked him. 

Ashamed of his own weakness, Gray ran inside before he was seen sitting on his ass in the night streets. Once he got to his couch, he fell over and sobbed. 

_Deliora._

-=-

The next morning, Natsu got up as early as possible, wanting to beat the rush- and Gray- to the station. He always felt less like a drag when he wasn't the late one. He was usually the late one. And the drag. 

He was surprised when he saw Gray already leaning against a pillar at the station, reading that damn book. 

It was _4:15_ in the _fucking morning_.

"Hey! Pervert! Whatcha' doing up so early?!" He yelled, grinning when Gray turned to look at him. "Hey, Natsu. I could ask you the same thing. What took you so long?" _Smug bastard._ Natsu laughed anyway, but he couldn't keep up the happy for long because- whoa-

Gray looked awful. 

His best friend had dark circles under his eyes like he hadn't slept in weeks - which, now that Natsu thought about it, was probably true -, he looked thinner than his already-thin self, and he just looked plain miserable. 

How hadn't Natsu noticed yesterday at the guild? Did something happen last night?

"You okay there?" Gray's voice snapped him out of his gawking. He flushed in embarrassment. "Yeah- er- you look horrible!"

Okay. Not exactly how Natsu wanted to phrase it. Curse his blabbermouth.

Gray frowned. "Thanks, asshole. You don't look so hot yourself, pun intended." Natsu gestured to Gray. "No, but seriously. You look really bad, man. Did you sleep at all last night?" The ice-mage got defensive immediately. "Yes, practically ten hours."

He didn't mention the two hour nightmare from hell starting at midnight, nor the fact that after that nightmare he hadn't been able to sleep a wink. 

Natsu glared at him. "Fine, don't tell me the truth, bastard. Just trying to help." 

Gray shrugged. "Whatever, thanks, sure. Let's just get this job started."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short! I worked really hard on it but I'm not sure it's that great... hopefully someone likes it! Next chapter will come out as soon as possible, but keep in mind that I don't exactly have all-access to a computer. (Read profile)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got to go to the library _again_ today so I thought I'd work on this a bit more... super happy that I'm so close to the public library, although I think the librarians are getting suspicious that I come every other day and stay on the computers for hours. (They're really nice and it's usually pretty empty so there's not a time limit on computer time.)

Once the train pulled in just ten minutes later, Gray boarded and Natsu boarded, albeit reluctantly.

"Do we _have_ to go on the train? Walking is good. I need to walk off all that food I ate. Exercise!" Natsu said, totally convincingly. Gray wasn't buying it. "You'll burn it all off when we're fighting the dark guild, idiot." Natsu groaned and sat in his seat, waiting hopelessly for the torture to begin. Noticing his forlorn expression, Gray sighed and stood up to sit next to Natsu instead of across from him. "You owe me." He mumbled as the train's whistle blew harshly. Natsu laughed. "You always say that but you always do this anyway..." 

"Shut up." Gray snapped playfully. "Don't make me regret that I always do this for you, man."

The train started rolling along the track, making whatever Natsu had to say disappear in a pile of vomit that flew out the window. Gray shook his head, not holding back his laughter. He pooled a small amount of magic energy into each hand, then gently putting one on Natsu's neck and the other on his wrist where his pulse was.

Gray wasn't exactly sure why being _cold_ helped a _fire dragon-slayer_ get over his _motion-sickness_ , but as long as Natsu wasn't groaning or throwing up the entire four hour train ride, Gray was satisfied. 

When the cold skin touched Natsu's own, he made a noise of relief and started falling asleep.

The raven haired wizard smiled, and hesitated before ruffling the pinkette's hair. "I wouldn't ever regret doing this for you, don't worry." Gray said very quietly. Then he realised how that sounded. "Gah!" He kept his hands on Natsu to cool him down or whatever, but his face flushed in embarrassment and he turned away, even though Natsu was totally out of it.

 _Totally_ out of it... which is why Gray didn't see when Natsu smiled. 

-=-

Four hours later and the mountains of Brago were beginning to appear everywhere. Natsu was still 'out of it', but Gray was starting to feel like the queasy one. Just looking at the cold, snow covered mountains reminded him so much of Ur and Lyon in their training days. 

_"You're out of your league, Gray!"_ Ur.

 _"Don't go!_ Lyon.

 _"If I die, it'll be your fault! You should've taught me more powerful magic!"_

Gray closed his eyes for a moment, washing away the memories. The cold bite of snow to the back of his neck, the sting of fury as he saw Deliora. Then the complete engulf of fear as the demon turned towards him. Gray opened his eyes and pushed the memories as far away as he could. 

The ice-mage looked back out the window. Snow had started falling a while back, and the windows were beginning to ice over. Gray removed his chilly hands from Natsu, realising that the train car was cold enough and Natsu would be going to get hypothermia if he didn't have a real-life-dragon-furnace inside of him.

As soon as he removed his hands Natsu turned out the window and vomited again.

Huh.

-=-

The train _whrrr_ ed to a stop, and as soon as the whistle blew, Natsu shakily stood up and bolted off the train, not waiting for his saviour. 

Gray rolled his eyes and followed him, picking up his fallen scarf and exiting the train. Natsu was laying on the ground, practically- no, literally- kissing it. "Oh hallelujah I couldn't survive one more minute on that goddamn train! I'm never going on transportation again!" He declared, in his excitement shooting a burst of flames into the air and making citizens scream and run. 

"Flame-for-brains, you idiot! We've got to be somewhat stealthy so we can find this stupid dark guild!" Gray hissed, bonking Natsu on the head, who turned and forgot the current job request. "You wanna go, ice-princess?!" Gray froze his fist over, grinning. "Yeah! It's been awhile, huh?" 

Two men were whispering, pointing at Gray and then saying something. Gray turned to look at them, putting his fist down. They were the only citizens that hadn't run screaming. "Natsu..." Gray whispered. "Those two freaks. Smell something weird about them?" Natsu frowned, turning and looking at the two figures. He sniffed. "I smell anxiety... they're also excited about something." Gray scowled. "Natsu- look. Hands. On their hands- doesn't that look like-"

Both wizards turned to each other in realisation. "A guild mark!" They said in unity. 

They said it a bit too loud because the other unknown men whipped their heads up from the private discussion and noticed the two staring at them. One of the men grabbed the other's shoulder. "Run!" He said. The two Fairy Tail wizards chased them. "They might be from the dark guild! If we follow them, they'll lead us right to their guild hall!" Gray shouted, ignoring the pang in his chest as he ran through the snow. He pulled his white coat on a little tighter. 

The two men had stamina, that was something. Eventually all four people were getting exhausted, but Fairy Tail never loses, so Natsu and Gray powered on relentlessly. The two men they were following turned and darted into an alleyway and then down the stairs. Natsu pumped a fist in the air. "We've got 'em now!" The wizards flew down the stairs, into the darkness.

"Where'd they go?" Natsu asked. Gray shivered. "I don't know, but I've got a bad feeling about this."

The lights cracked on, and the two looked around. They were in a dark guild hall, surrounded by at least fifteen strong-looking members who all seemed to be looking at Gray. One of them, a beefy looking guy with greenish gold skin, and eyes that were completely red, pointed at Gray. 

"Is that the one she wants?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realised this chapter was even shorter than the last one...  
> But I think it's a good place to cut off, maybe?
> 
> Sorry! I'll do better! ; _ ;


End file.
